Indianapolis Museum of Art Blog

You know the old adage: “You can’t judge a book by its cover.” Nonetheless, we do. How many times have you picked up a book in the bookstore because the cover caught your eye? That’s no accident—book designers know that an eye-catching cover results in sales.

One of the joys of creating a book is researching the images that will grace its pages—or its cover. There’s always that moment when—leafing through yet another folder of forgotten photos—your fingers abruptly stop, your eyes refocus and you know—you just know—that you’ve found a picture that just has to be in the book. Or on its cover. For me, that moment arrived one day in the summer of 2007 when I stumbled upon a picture of a trio of boys in a gallery at the Herron Museum, the predecessor of the IMA.

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It seemed like a good idea at the time. When I was first approached about being one of four contributing writers to a history of the first 125 years of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, I didn’t hesitate to sign on. After all, I’d already been one of three co-authors of The Herron Chronicle, a history of the Herron School of Art (released in 2002), and the author of For the Sake of Art, a history of the Indianapolis Art Center (released in 1999). And before resigning in April 2007, I had spent 10 years as the visual arts writer for The Indianapolis Star—covering the IMA had been one of my primary responsibilities.

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